Then I got an email from Ankit of Instablogs that went something like this.

“I have a small company in India, very little money and I want to build an international news organization to rival CNN… And we want it not just something people read on the web but also in their local papers and watch on their phones.”

Ankit wanted to curve bullets.

Now that sounded just impossible enough to be interesting.

So between shooting video of my homies, I went to work with Ankit (and his brilliant team in India) to create the future.

What we did was took regular folks from around the world and empowered them.

We let them tell the stories going on in their neighborhood, city or country to us. We then find video to back them up (if they don’t shoot any) and throw it online in a daily video format for your computer or phone.

All the media was there (btw, India has a lot of media). Many of the journalists stood with their mouths open as we explained how we have ‘citizen journalists’ filing video reports from all over the world, everyday.

Franklin:I’m only going to that conference to see you. And the Jolie fetish stays.
Howard: When will you stop appearing on video shows talking about twitter and focus on fixing the stock market? Your country needs you!
Fred:We’ll work on it!

Killer idea. Used to use disposable cameras sent out to large numbers in ethnographic research. Always a delight to see what came back, what serendipity wrapped up with a bow of delight. Can only imagine you’ll be doing same with a multiplier effect. Looking forward. Fun.

I think you are missing the bigger picture Rafi. I would be the first to realize the problems with stuff like quality, etc. But that is the kind of stuff that can be improved. In fact that is the easy part. The hard part, getting the people, working the logistics, inspiring people enough to get involved and care is the hard part. And that hurdle we already crossed.

Out of curiosity, are you starting to think about maybe shipping out text to folks either state-side or Euro who DO have a firm grasp of English and the ability to turn around copy on a reasonably swift basis as a sort of second-line of development? Stringers/CitJ going out, gathering the info, getting some video maybe, then sending it off to folks who can change that into a tighter VO for the piece?

That sounds like something I’d not only be interested in doing but ENJOY doing, and if it earned me some money on the way, all the better.

When I first looked at the video I wasn’t impressed. The sound was not good. The host looked a little shaky but then I started thinking about it and I can see why you’re excited.
A small company in India creating a viable rival to CNN with the budget of Anderson Cooper’s yearly salary is impressive. Very impressive.

1. You can’t jump ahead in the video if it hasn’t been loaded fully. (Being in India, it does take more than a few minutes to load – and what if I just want to see one of the 5 news stories?)

2. I would think a digg like process would be better. With a daily editorial. In other words: let people shoot their news videos guerilla style and upload it. Let other people vote for it everyday. And at the end of the day – show the hot-news-of-the-day video on the main page.

3. You will need breaking news or else not many people will stick with it. So I would focus more on the local angle. Twitter is the first site where news about Mumbai floods come on. Maybe Instablogs TV could be the first site where video of such things could first come on – before the big news channels can move.

In summary: Focus on local. Focus on guerilla style… the quirkier the better. Focus on web 2.0.